error WIX0005: The Component element contains an unexpected child element 'Files'

[alexhass]

Question

1. I'm trying to harvest a folder structure of a product, but I get the error - The Component element contains an unexpected child element 'Files'. I checked the full project to find examples how to implement it, but I cannot get it working. It is really frustrating as there is an example in test area that us using the same code without a component, but if I write the code without components I also get an error. Absolutly no idea what I'm going wrong.

<Package Name="$(var.ProductNameWithVersion)" ProductCode="$(var.ProductId)" Language="$(var.ProductLanguage)" Version="$(var.ProductVersion)" Manufacturer="$(var.ProductManufacturer)" UpgradeCode="$(var.ProductUpgradeCode)">


	<!-- Define the directory structure -->
	<StandardDirectory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
		<Directory Id="APPLICATIONFOLDER" Name="$(var.ProductName)">
			<Component Id="MainApplicationFiles" DiskId="1" Guid="{B7A78723-463A-43A5-BCF3-A1436705F46D}">
				<Files Include="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\**">
					<!--
					Don't harvest the files because it needs manual authoring (below).
					-->
					<Exclude Files="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\product.exe" />
				</Files>
			</Component>
		
			<Component Id="product.exe" DiskId="1" Guid="*">
				<File Id="product.exe" Name="product.exe" Source="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\product.exe" />
			</Component>

If you may point me to an project example that contains "files" element it would be really helpful.

[robmen]

The Files element does not go under a Component element (see the doc), so that error is pretty straightforward. The other error you don't provide would be interesting.

Note if you can use INSTALLFOLDER instead of APPLICATIONFOLDER then you can simplify your code to:

<Package Name="$(var.ProductNameWithVersion)" ProductCode="$(var.ProductId)" Language="$(var.ProductLanguage)" Version="$(var.ProductVersion)" Manufacturer="$(var.ProductManufacturer)" UpgradeCode="$(var.ProductUpgradeCode)">

<Files Include="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\**">
	<!--
	Don't harvest the files because it needs manual authoring (below).
	-->
	<Exclude Files="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\product.exe" />
</Files>

<File Source="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\product.exe" />

PS: Why do you have so many define variables for your Package element? Are they really variables? If not, it makes your .wxs code so much more complex.

[alexhass]

I really have problems with the documentation. It has not helped me to solve any issue.

I was not aware that there is a secret function behind the variable name INSTALLFOLDER. I give it a try.

I'm typicall using this together to cleanup the folders on uninstall, but I'm fine with changing to INSTALLFOLDER if that helps something.

<!-- RemoveFolderEx requires that we "remember" the path for uninstall. This workaround is only required for the uninstall. -->
        <Property Id="APPLICATIONFOLDER">
            <RegistrySearch Id="APPLICATIONFOLDER_REGSEARCH" Root="HKLM" Key="SOFTWARE\[Manufacturer]\[ProductName]" Name="Path" Type="raw" Bitness="always32" />
        </Property>

		<StandardDirectory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
			<Directory Id="APPLICATIONFOLDER" Name="$(var.ProductName)">
				<Component Id="MainApplicationFiles" DiskId="1" Guid="{B7A78723-463A-43A5-BCF3-A1436705F46D}">

Why is your example above not inside a <StandardDirectory Id="ProgramFilesFolder"> ? How should the setup know, into what folder the application files need to be installed? This is very confusing example code to me. I seen it earlier, but do not understand how this works and always got errors.

Is there any example project around that I can steal code from? Something ready that simply works and than I can use this as a starting point?

Yes I'm using lots of variables. I have a central variables file that contains all definitions.

The other issue I'm facing is with language files. I was just trying to solve the files issue first and see if this fixes the other. To me it looks like the laguage file it not used.

SET Culture=en-us
wix build -pdbtype "none" -o "ReleaseDir\foo-win-3.7.9.msi" Foo.wxs -loc "Lang\foo.%Culture%.wxl"

Why are you not adding a component around File? How should I reference this without a component in "Features"?
<File Source="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\product.exe" />

[alexhass]

I cannot get it working with INSTALLFOLDER, too.

[foo.en-us.wxl]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<WixLocalization xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxl" Culture="en-US">
	<String Id="ProductName" Value="Foo" />
</WixLocalization>


[foo.wxi]
<Include xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs">
	<?define ProductName="!(loc.ProductName)" ?>
</Include>

[Foo.wxs]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs" xmlns:util="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs/util" xmlns:ui="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs/ui">
	<?include $(sys.CURRENTDIR)Includes\Foo.wxi ?>

	<Package Name="$(var.ProductNameWithVersion)" ProductCode="$(var.ProductId)" Language="$(var.ProductLanguage)" Version="$(var.ProductVersion)" Manufacturer="$(var.ProductManufacturer)" UpgradeCode="$(var.ProductUpgradeCode)">

		<StandardDirectory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
			<Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="$(var.ProductName)">
				<Files Include="SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\**">

It ends with the warning

WIX8601: Missing directory for harvesting files: Could not find a part of the path 'D:\Build\Foo\v5\!(loc.ProductName)\SourceDir\3.7.9'.

And the reason is - the real path is "D:\Build\Foo\v5\SourceDir\3.7.9" and the harvesting has added another "!(loc.ProductName)" subdirectory for unknown reasons. I do not know why the translation is not resolved. I configured "SourceDir\$(var.ProductVersion)\**" and not "SourceDir\!(loc.ProductName)\$(var.ProductVersion)\**".

and additonally I get this, as I have no component name for the files that should be harvested.

error WIX0094: The identifier 'WixFeatureGroup:MainApplicationFiles' could not be found. Ensure you have typed the reference correctly and that all the necessary inputs are provided to the linker.